Andrejs Rastorgu-YEAH!!!

Contrary to popular belief Andrejs Rastorgujevs is just one person! The ‘s’ at the end of both names is just because he comes from Latvia and not because he is plural! I am a huge fan of Rastorgujevs but he managed to drive me mad last season. He was in a winning position so many times and threw a podium away on the final shoot every time. I was willing him in every race to get there but he just missed out.

Apart from that he actually had a fantastic season and made some amazing progress! He finished a career best 4th in the Pursuit in Oberhof (which really led to my desperation to see him on the podium!). He got another seven TOP 10 finishes which really made it an outstanding season for him.

Andrejs Rastorgujevs was born on the 27th of May 1988 in Alūksne, Latvia and is a member of the army as well as being a biathlete. His debut on the World Cup in the 2009/10 season in Oestersund was quite a memorable one – for all the wrong reasons! He finished 47th in the Sprint which you would agree is a pretty impressive first race but only if you finish in the correct lane! He was unfortunately disqualified. However this didn’t stop him heading to Vancouver to compete in his first Olympics where his best finish was 50th in the Sprint. In fact it underlies his massive improvement that his best finish in Sochi was 9th in the Pursuit and his worst result was just 33rd in the Individual.

Andrejs has competed many times in the European Championships where he continued to infuriate me by finishing 5th and 4th in many events over several years!;-). However it all came good in Nove Mesto 2014 and he won gold in the Individual and bronze in the Sprint. This showed that he does have the nerve to handle the pressure in important races and hopefully he can bring that to the World Cup this December.

It’s a really important season coming up for Andrejs. He has got everything he needs to be able to win a race on the World Cup. He has the ski speed to match any of the top men and he is also a consistent shooter. It is just that final shoot he needs to work on and show that he can cope with the pressure of leading a race and being chased down by the other guys. I am pretty confident he can do it and make it on to the podium this season if not all the way up to the top step. Actually he better do it for my sanity and blood pressure watching him and so I can finally shout congratulations Andrejs Rastorgu-YEAH!!!